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How to Paint a Checkerboard Floor on Your Porch

Checkerboard floors evoke a simpler time - warm summer days, the sun at your back, sipping iced tea and the softness of worn jeans. They're genteel and charming - and evoke memories of family gatherings, starry skies, and crickets chirping as the sun sinks into the horizon.

To create a timeless space your family can enjoy for now – and for years to come – use Benjamin Moore Floor and Porch paint, a reinforced finish that is designed just for floors.

How to Paint a Checkerboard Floor:

Step-by-Step Instructions

Prepare the wood by washing it with a TSP (trisodium phosphate) and water solution. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry completely.

Sand lightly with fine sandpaper and use a tack cloth to wipe the wood free of dust.

Prime and paint two coats of the lighter of the two colors over the entire porch floor. Allow to dry completely.

Using a chalk line, snap a line lengthwise down the center of the porch. Center your measurements and your pattern on this line.

Mark 1-foot intervals across the width and along the sides of the porch. Use the chalk line to snap lines between them, creating a diamond pattern (see photo above). Note: Unless you want a busy effect, keep the diamonds fairly large. We used 1-foot squares.

Tape off the outside edges of every other row of diamonds across the porch.

When painting a checkerboard floor, apply two coats of the second color inside those diamonds. Remove the painter's tape while the paint is still wet.

Supplies:

Trisodium phosphate (TSP)

Fine sandpaper

Tack cloth

Chalk line

Low-tack painter's tape

Paint:

Benjamin Moore Floor & Patio Finish

Colors:

White (01)

Showroom White

Tips for Painting a Checkerboard Floor

To create a more non-slip surface, add a small handful of clean, fine granular sand to each gallon of floor paint.